Effects of dietary copper supplementation on serum and biochemical and histopathology of pubertal boars

Abstract

The effects of dietary copper on some biochemistry and histopathology of organs of pubertal pigs were assessed using 32 large white male weanling pigs of 8-9 weeks of age in a 6-months feeding trial. The animals were randomly assigned to four diets containing 0, 100, 200 and 300ppm Cu/kg as the control diet (diet 1), diets 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The feeding trial was divided into 3 growth phases (weanling, pre-pubertal and pubertal) corresponding to 8, 18 and 24 weeks of life respectively. At the end of the feeding trial, all the animals were sacrificed by stunning, bled, decapacitated followed by blood collection and careful evisceration to obtain the kidney, liver, spleen and testes and samples of the small intestine. Selected organs and tissues collected from sacrificed animals were processed for histology. Results showed that dietary copper did not significantly (P>0.05) influence the blood serum biochemical composition and the histomorphology of the organs and tissues examined. The boars exposed to the diet containing the highest copper supplementation (diet 4) did not have severe splenic atrophy and/or lymphoid depletion, liver necrosis and/or lesions, intestinal mucosal erosion and testicular necrosis and/or sertoli cells degeneration as compared to those fed the control. There was no intestinal mucosal erosion with increased dietary copper in this study because the maximum level of copper that was used in this study was not above 500ppm; hence all the tissues studied did not show degeneration of any form.